History of Asbestos

Asbestos (from the Greek 'amiantus', meaning unquenchable) has been known and used for approximately 4500 years. Many centuries before Christ, Finnish peasants mixed it in pottery and sealed cracks in their log huts with it. The ancient Greeks used it to make wicks for their lamps. The ancient Romans wove asbestos fibres into fabrics to make towels, nets and even head coverings for women.

In medieval times Emperor Charlemagne reportedly used an asbestos tablecloth to convince some Barbarian guests that he had supernatural powers - by throwing it into a fire and pulling it out unsinged!

Some enterprising medieval merchants even sold asbestos crosses, citing their resistance to fire as evidence that they were made from wood of 'the true cross'.

Asbestos remained little more than a curiosity until the advent of the Industrial Age in the 1800s when industry realised its potential uses. Before long, asbestos supported a flourishing global industry, even though in the early 1900s doctors in Europe knew that asbestos workers were dying from respiratory ailments. (In about 1900 Dr Montague Murray reported on pulmonary fibrosis (asbestosis) in workers employed in the asbestos industry.)

By 1918 overseas insurance companies had already begun to refuse life insurance policies for workers occupationally exposed to asbestos, apparently noting their unusually short life spans. By the 1930s there was a substantial amount of scientific knowledge accumulated concerning asbestos-related diseases. However, this did not deter Industry from mining and manufacturing numerous products containing various types of asbestos for domestic and industrial uses.